1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a box with integrated collapsible dividers which box is suitable for holding, protecting, and transporting multiple rectangular products but can be easily collapsed for storage when not in use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Boxes with partitions for separating multiple products within the box are well known. Dividers or partitions, when designed and used properly, can minimize the potential for a product being scraped and injured by other products shipped in the same box. Such dividers may also support each product in a relatively safe position within the box, to help protect each enclosed product from damage due to being bounced around within a moving box, while providing cushioning from blows to the box.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,859,537 to Shofer, U.S. Pat. No. 1,890,965 to Boeye, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,842 to Bradford et al., teach inserts which can be placed in a standard rectangular box to hold dividers between canned goods or other products. These inserts have tabs and slots suitable for maintaining the position of the insert within an unmodified, standard rectangular box.
Other boxes known in the prior art are formed from a single blank including partitions that are foldable inside the box to protect products of particular shapes and dimensions. Examples of such containers include a box for holding insects described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,420 to Botterman et al. and a box for transporting golf clubs taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,983 to Lelek. Similarly, cartons with partitions created from a single blank are described in The Fibre Box Handbook of the Fibre Box Association and U.S. Pat. No. 1,737,950 to Scotland, U.S. Pat. No. 2,078,907 to Kondolf, U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,290 to Byassee, U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,142 to Rosenburg, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,630 to Block.
Although each of the boxes known in the prior art are useful for a particular purpose, transportation of rectangular electronic devices such as Set Top Boxes creates a unique set of requirements. Ideally, such boxes should provide cushioned support to protect fragile components. As a result, most containers used in the industry today have three separate components: an exterior box, a set of dividers insertable in the box to separate and protect transported products from each other, and a cushioning pad which is inserted between the dividers and products and the bottom of the box. The fact that there are three separate components to a typical box for shipping electronic products creates inefficiency and problems for certain users. For example, cable company local stores providing repair and replacement units are normally small and do not have extensive storage room. To minimize the space taken by a box when not in use, each box is routinely broken down into its three separate parts. When a need arises to rebuild the box to transport products, some of the three components may be lost or damaged. Furthermore, labor costs to reassemble the box are significant.
Currently available boxes are frequently thrown out instead of being re-used, due to space restrictions which make it impossible to store fully assembled boxes, time required to disassemble the boxes to accommodate such storage space restrictions, or difficulty in reassembling the boxes when the dividers or cushioning pad may have been separately stored and subsequently lost. The cable industry has long sought a box that can be easily broken down and stored at a local store and efficiently set back up to accept more Set Top Boxes. The claimed invention provides a long sought unique and novel solution to the cable industry's problems with using three part boxes. The claimed box with integrated dividers can typically be used to make four separate trips, which is twice the number of uses expected from currently available boxes for transporting Set Top Boxes, resulting in approximately 50% savings in packaging costs. A box with integrated dividers and cushioning, which can be easily collapsed and re-assembled, is needed to safely transport rectangular products.